The invention relates generally to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to a stacked connector assembly mounted on a circuit board.
There is an increasing demand for digital content in today's society in both the home and the workplace. Hi-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a transmission interface developed for multimedia audio video systems including DVD players, game box converters, TV set top boxes, and the like. With the capability for transmitting digital signals, HDMI technology avoids signal losses associated with digital to analog conversions. Liquid crystal displays have become an output device of choice in audio visual products and personal computer displays. Demand for such products has increased the need for HDMI connectors capable of transmitting digital signals to the output devices.
The proliferation of digitally formatted data such as in digital music files and digital photographs in addition to email and other household or business data has led to an ongoing need for disk space or more generally, storage space in personal computers. Disk drives are now being designed to comply with a newer standard, generally referred to as the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) standard, which is the standard presently favored for newer computers. External SATA or eSATA brings the benefits of SATA to external data storage. ESATA provides a more robust and user friendly connection that is faster than previous external storage solutions.
Some devices, such as set top boxes, game box converters, etc. may contain both HDMI and eSATA ports. Both HDMI connectors and eSATA connectors are typically mounted at the edge of circuit boards to facilitate access of cable mounted external connectors to the internal circuits of the host devices. Typically, component area on the circuit boards is limited. As a result, it is desirable to conserve space on the circuit boards. With the ongoing development of new technologies such as HDMI and eSATA, conserving component area on the circuit boards is challenging.